This weekend, the University of Texas Permian Basin’s recently revived theatre program will be putting on John Cariani’s play “Love/Sick.”
The show will take place at 7 p.m. March 24 and 25 and at 2 p.m. March 26 on campus at the Dunagan Library.
The play captures the fundamental elements of human relationships. Not a typical comedy, “Love/Sick” is much darker as Cariani presents both the positive and negative aspects of love.
Making her directorial debut is Nichole Rougeau-Vanderford who is eager for the opportunity to put this show on.
The show is a part of the return of the drama program at UTPB.
“I’m very excited,” Rougeau-Vanderford said. “This is the start of a new venture for UTPB. We had a drama program many years ago and now that we’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of UTPB, we are looking at starting fresh. We’ve reinvented the theatre program. It’s a minor. It’s not on degree just yet. But it’s an interdisciplinary program. We created a curriculum to where anybody interested in any facet of theater could add this kind of program to a degree that they’re pursuing at UTPB.”
Cariani, who also wrote the play “Almost, Maine,” is a well-known dramatist who focuses on “absurdist theater.”
“’Almost, Maine’ is more on the absurdist side,” Rougeau-Vanderford said. “We do have some absurd elements in ‘Love/Sick’ but the play focuses on the path that we take to finding love in our lives.”
The play is a collection of nine slightly twisted and often funny short plays.
Set on a Friday night in an alternate suburban reality, the play explores the pain and the joy that comes with being in love.
The show starts off with that initial attraction and then moves on to the heartbreak of a relationship.
“It explores what happens when a marriage breaks down, when it builds up and it takes us all the way through that acceptance of love and it ends where it begins,” Rougeau-Vanderford said. “We have that one couple at the beginning and then we see them at the end to signify that cycle of love that we continue to put ourselves through that cycle until we find that one that we’re meant to be with.”
There are nine different scenes in the play as well as nine actors playing the roles of 18 different characters in total.
One of those actors is Taiba Mohamed.
One of the things Mohamed loves about this play is how simple the production is.
“It’s very minimal,” Mohamed said. “It focuses more on the actor more than the set and the props. The audience can focus more on the actors and their emotions.”
Mohamed’s character in the show is a hard-working mother and wife named Liz.
“She’s almost at work every day so she barely gets to see her family and kids,” Mohamed said. “She provides for her family. Sometimes she feels like she’s missing out on her kids’ lives and misses out on having that intimate relationship with her spouse. That’s what Liz is. She’s perseverant. She does everything that she says she’s going to do.”
For Mohamed, it’s been a joy to be a part of the invigorated drama program at UTPB.
”I love working with my cast,” Mohamed said. “It’s been a thrill to get to know them more. We’ve spent a lot of time with each other outside of rehearsals to build chemistry. One thing for me, personally, is that I haven’t been in theater since high school. I used to love theater. To have that chance to be a part of the theatre program here at UTPB, it brought back my love for theater. I’m very appreciative that we’re starting the theater program up and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Carol Harwell is another cast member of the show who plays Louise Overbee.
“She’s an older lady,” Harwell said. “She’s never been married. She has a boyfriend and she thinks they’re going to get married and she’s all excited until she sees a telegram man come by.”
Harwell says her character in the show is fun.
“She’s a lot more fun than I am,” Harwell said with a laugh. “She’s very excitable. I enjoy playing the different emotions. It’s a very short scene but it goes through a lot of different emotions. It’s fun seeing that package of emotions in a short amount of time.”
Playing multiple roles in the show is Daniel Fernandez.
His first character is a man named Ben who has a love interest. His second character is a married man who goes through a different range of emotions with his wife after work.
“(In that scene) I come home to my wife and she brings up something that happens in her day and it brings us down another course,” Fernandez said. “We go from relaxed to something we have to figure out as a couple.”
In his third act, he plays a twice-divorced person who runs into his ex at the store.
“The first one, I like to play Ben because he’s a nervous guy who’s interested in this person that he’s been talking to for a month,” Fernandez said. “It’s fun to act it out. The next one is nice because I like the drastic differences and emotions that it goes through. It’s nice to switch between the emotions. The last one is nice because it’s about reminiscing and how interesting it is to run into someone that you have a history with.”
If you go
- What: “Love/Sick.”
- When: 7 p.m. March 24, 7 p.m. March 25, 2 p.m. March 26.
- Where: Dunagan Library (on the campus of UTPB).
- Where to purchase ticket: tinyurl.com/5edu2p5t
